All posts by Chris Gibson

Walks in Progress: Exploring the Colne Valley Path around Chappel

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail, WildEssex

Again looking for potential new day-long wildlife walks (see Around the peaks of the Essex Alps.…), we headed by train to the village of Chappel, half -way along the branch-line from Marks Tey to Sudbury, on a lovely, calm, sunny autumn day. Often overshadowed by its neighbouring Stour Valley, the one with the designation of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (now rebranded National Landscapes), to our mind the Colne, running from Great Yeldham to Colchester and thence to the tidal estuary we are fortunate enough to wake up to every day, is every bit as ‘Outstanding’!

We headed upstream from Chappel through the broad, sweeping pastoral valley with well-wooded slopes.

Every so often the paths approach or cross the river itself…

Here we found Grey Wagtails, Kingfisher and Little Egret; twittering, feeding Swallows; and riverbanks in places with dense patches of Small Teasel, scarce in Essex, and very much a speciality of the northernmost river valleys.

And plenty of human interest as well from churches to mills and fishing ponds.

Away from the valley bottom, the landscape was more enclosed with large hedgerows, just bursting with the fruits (and galls) of the season, as well as buzzing with the multitudinous visitors to the late-summer riches of Ivy flowers: Honeybees, Ivy Bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, Box Bugs, social wasps and many more. Also Red Admirals, although not showing the urgent migratory behaviour we had seen for the previous week along the coast.

In the grassland, several Small Heaths were flying, and a sluggish Hornet gave unbeatable views.

At Chalkney Mill we left the river behind and headed uphill through Chalkney Wood. An ancient wood with a interesting history, I was involved 20 years ago in securing the deconiferization of the two-thirds of the wood owned by the Forestry Commission. And now you would never know that it had had a forty-year blip in its venerable history of coppicing. It was especially reassuring to see Small-leaved Lime, the tree for which the wood is especially renowned, rising from the ashes of herbicide application and dense, dark overshading.

Far from the best time of year to see such a wood, the sheltered rides at least had good numbers of dragonflies: Common Darters, Migrant Hawkers and a Southern Hawker.

Returning along the higher ground, passing damp woods and springs filled with Great Horsetail and Common Fleabane …

… we reached some of the more sandy peaks, with excellent views and a few characteristic plants such as Blue Fleabane.

In addition the arable fields on the plateaux were not without interest, some sown with bird-seed mixes, and others newly ploughed tracts revealing abundant flints. There is no chalk locally for flints to come from: these hills are clothed in ‘chalky boulder clay’, the accumulated detritus picked up further north from the melting of the Anglian glacial advance.

And something I have never seen before, Wispy Willowherb Epilobium brachycarpum growing as an arable ‘weed’. This is a a rapidly spreading species from its first UK discovery, near Colchester, as recently as 2004.

Another short walk and the magnificent railway viaduct formed a fine full stop to the walk. Completed in 1849 and still used to this day, this is one of the largest brick structures in the country, containing about the same number of bricks – some 6 million – as Battersea Power Station!

All this, and more on our stroll, when ended very convivially with a pint and a super meal in The Swan Inn, back down beside the river itself. Lots of potential for wildlife walks around here: quintessentially English landscape, with nothing rare perhaps but still lots to see at any time from spring to autumn.

 

Walks in Progress: Around the peaks of the Essex Alps….

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

In the search for new locations for day-long walks, my eyes alighted on that great fold of London Clay that runs transversely, north-east to south-west across Essex, from Walton-on-the-Naze to Epping Forest. Thrust up as a shock-wave of the continental collision some 20 million years ago that created the Mediterranean basin and the mountains around it, the peaks are actually clothed in gravels from a course of the River Thames that once ran over the newly laid-down claylands.

‘Peaks’ may seem an overstatement, but at a little over 110m the village of Danbury sits atop the highest point of Essex away from the north-western chalk. Given the gravelly and sloping nature of the land around, the surroundings have escaped widespread agricultural intensification. And now the village is more-or-less contiguously embraced by nature reserves owned and managed by both the National Trust and the Essex Wildlife Trust. There is nowhere in the heartland of Essex with such a concentration of nature, all lying in close proximity to the settlement and providing ample walking opportunities, avoiding significant lengths slogging along roads.

The habitats I encountered in my recce a couple of weeks ago ranged from ancient coppiced woodland through to dry heathland, including species-rich grassland, secondary woodland and scrub (often on historic gravel extraction sites), spring-line wetlands and even a small area of raised bog, very scarce in Essex.

So late in the summer, those areas dominated by Heather were looking their very best, especially on the Backwarden Reserve. Any bit of Heather in Essex is important, given its scarcity in the county as compared with for example the Suffolk Sandlings.

However, coming hard on the heels of a two-month near-drought with some very high temperatures, other flowers were a bit frazzled. But Wood Sage spread its subtle beauty along the woodland edges,  Creeping-Jenny and Water Mint were in damp spots long with fruiting Tutsan, while the more shaded small wetlands were often luxuriantly covered in ferns or Giant Horsetails.

There were plenty of flowers still in Hitchcock’s Meadows, especially Common Knapweed, Harebell and Musk Mallow, but sadly no sign on the parched slope tops of Autumn Lady’s-tresses where I knew them so abundantly 35 years ago. Has the same fate befallen the Green-winged Orchids that once graced the same fields in May? Next year may tell… One very definite change though was the growth of trees to the south such that the once-impressive view over to the distant North Downs has been somewhat curtailed.

Earlier summer rains have filled out some of the autumn fruits while the first fungi were beginning to show, including Common Earthballs, a frequent, albeit well-camouflaged, sight on the gravelly slopes under trees.

Just a few butterflies were in evidence (sadly typical for this summer), with Speckled Woods most numerous, and also several Small Coppers in Hitchcock’s Meadows. And there, on the higher sandy ground, digger wasps including Cerceris rybyensis, the Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp, were doing their thing.

Otherwise, insects included Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers in many places, and the unmistakeable galleries of Elm Zig-zag Sawfly larvae.

Not the best time of year for birds, but especially the woodlands rang to the songs of Chiffchaffs and Robins, with calling Nuthatches and woodpeckers and wandering mixed flocks of tits.

One of the special parts of Essex, the Danbury Ridge has something for everyone, at any time of year.

#WildEssexWalks: Harwich town and beach

Britain's Wildlife, Bug & Botany Walks, Travel by Rail, WildEssex

Despite disappointment that our proposed ferry trip to Felixstowe wasn’t possible due to windy weather, we nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed half of our planned day’s event – a morning’s walk around Harwich – the Wild Essex event for September.  The ‘après walk’ of lunch in the Pier Café and a drink in the Alma only added to the fun and we’d like to thank everyone who came along.

Harwich with its many historic buildings was once a busy and thriving port, but today had a relaxed air of an out-of-season holiday destination, with few other visitors. And the cracks of the pavements were filled with interesting plants such as Shaggy Soldier.

We had the beach to ourselves, which gave a free rein to admire and study the plants which thrive in this most inhospitable of habitats: Sea Rocket on the strandline, Lyme Grass, Rock Samphire, Sea Spurge and Sea-holly on the low dunes, although the latter especially was looking very frazzled after the midsummer heat and drought.

Greenest of all was the clump of Japanese Rose, also with its large lustrous hips and a few extravagantly scented flowers. An aggressive spreader in some circumstances, it was good to see it has remained pretty stable since we left the area a decade ago.

We did a quick roll-call of shells on the beach – cockles, mussels, oysters, limpets, slipper-limpets and whelks to name but a few, but although we hunted high and low we weren’t fortunate enough to find any of the fossilized sharks’ teeth which we know reside on the beach.  It’s one of those things – sometimes you’re lucky and sometimes not!

Of course we managed a spot of birdwatching whilst there, with Sandwich Terns passing by noisily and fishing just offshore,  a medley of different gulls providing aerial entertainment and  Turnstones feeding unobtrusively on the rocky, weed-covered shoreline of the Harwich Stone Band, the only natural rocky shore between North Norfolk and Kent.

The few insects around (there had been quite a temperature drop overnight) included plasterer bees feeding and fighting (or frolicking?) on flowers of Bristly Oxtongue: the bees were probably Sea Aster Mining-bees, though related species are very difficult to tell apart.

On the other side of the estuary the comings and goings of the busy port of Felixstowe were interesting to view, as were the various arrays of wind turbines, very visible in the clear morning sky.

We hope to rearrange this trip next year – aiming for early summer rather than late, in the hope that the weather will be calmer and the ferry will be running.

The Wild Side of Essex with Naturetrek: an autumnal feel to the Naze

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

Birding hopes were high as we gathered for the latest Naturetrek Wild Side of Essex tour of the Naze. The previous day had seen a significant arrival of goodies, including Red-backed Shrike and Wryneck. Would they still be there? The answer was ‘probably’. But the strong cool wind and unremittingly dull conditions were not conducive to them being on show in the swishing Tamarisk and other shrubs.

Still, there were plenty of migrants to be found, including a Wheatear on Stone Point, a significant gathering of Swallows (with a few House and Sand Martins) hawking flies around a sheep field, that in turn attracted the attention of a hurtling Hobby three times (or perhaps three separate Hobbies?). Coasting flocks of Goldfinches and Linnets, with a few Chaffinches and Goldfinches, and feeding groups of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits added interest to the bird scene.

But perhaps the most remarkable feat of migration was from Red Admirals. The preceding five days had seen the most sustained southward migration I have witnessed in recent years, and dozens of them continued throughout our walk, battling the gusty winds.

The remarkable geology of the Naze was there as always, if not as radiant in the gloom as it can be: cliffs and shores telling tales of tropical lagoons, ancient volcanoes erupting far to the north, the collision of continents, beaches at a time of natural climate collapse, and vast dust storms from a frozen East Anglia.

Out to sea there was little action, apart from passing Cormorants, Sandwich Terns and  a Great Black-backed Gull.

The shoreline waders were however starting to build up in number, most numerous being Sanderlings and Turnstones, along with Ringed, Great and Golden Plovers, Curlews and several more.

On Stone Point, there was quite a gathering of Sandwich Terns and, best bird of the day, a Merlin settled on a clump of driftline detritus before creating mayhem as it powered along the beach.

Drift-line and embryo dune flora was in good form, with Sea Rocket alongside Frosted Orache, Prickly Saltwort and Shrubby Seablite. On the saltmarshes, Cord-grass was in full dangly flower, Golden Samphire was now going over, and Glassworts and Annual Seablite were developing their attractive and individually distinctive autumn colours.

The autumnal feel also pervaded the ponds, with the three species of late-season Odonata – Migrant Hawker, Common Darter and Willow Emerald.

And a few other bits and pieces in the scrub and higher ground, from Birch Bracket to Brown-tail nests and Sea Hog’s-fennel all contributed to a varied day of delights from the Wild Side of Essex!

Southend and seaward …

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail, WildEssex

It all started in April this year when we took Eleanor away for a night for the second time (the first being Cambridge last summer), this time to Southend-on-Sea. In the event it was very windy and cold so we spent most of our time in the indoor play area of Adventure Island (Eleanor was happy!) but we did take a train ride out to the end of the longest pier in the world.

A confession: although I worked most of my career on the Essex coast, I had never before been to the end of the pier. Perhaps it’s because of my challenging introduction to it, one of the first cases I worked on fresh out of university in 1986. That was a horrendous proposal to claim a vast swathe of land from the mudflats around the pier, creating an artificial island to be clad in hundreds of houses and fringed by a marina. It was a sorry tale of corruption and murky East End money (I was warned to be vigilant for violent reprisals)… Quite an eye opener so early in my career: conservation wasn’t all about fluffy bunnies and beautiful butterflies!

Anyway, once the political corruption was uncovered the development fell apart, and the data gathered by RSPB to help our case gave me all I needed to designate the entirety of Southend frontage as SSSI, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site – a place of national and international importance for overwintering waterbirds. Hitherto the only bit between Shoeburyness and Canvey that had benefited from protection was Leigh National Nature Reserve, centred around the vast Eel-grass beds off Two Tree Island and Leigh, justifiably famed for its Brent Geese.

So when I finally got to the end of the pier nearly 40 years later it was with fresh eyes,  upriver to London Gateway (another big case I worked on), landward, Kentward and seaward, where we saw the Red Sands forts hovering enticingly on the horizon  in front of the giant wind turbines of London Array some 3km beyond.

The Maunsell forts, built as defensive gun emplacements in WW2, are still standing proud and rusting, like something from a sci-fi movie. We had seen them and been similarly thrilled by them in the past from Whitstable, visited an exhibition about them, and always fancied a visit up close. Indeed we had booked one ten years ago, but the operator ceased trading. So it was great to find Jetstream tours online, now taking trips out there from Southend Pier. We duly booked for last week, taking the opportunity for another night away in Southend, one holiday triggering another!

Our recent jaunt started at Leigh-on-sea station, heading into the charms of Old Leigh …

And especially the Peterboat Inn, right by the NNR and serving for me the most wonderful tasty and filling clam chowder, served in a cob.

Then it was along the seawall track all the way to the pier, the high tide-line dotted with Golden-samphire, Grass-leaved Orache and Sea Wormwood…

To the landward, there was Perennial Wall-rocket, Common Toadflax and Seaside Daisy, with climbing Ivy covered in insects and scrambling Wild Clematis.

Along the whole of the 5km frontage, wherever there was Common Mallow there were Firebugs, a new arrival in the county (and country) that would not have been here when I first knew it. Nor indeed would have been Mediterranean Gulls, at least in such large numbers…

Next morning dawned misty and threatening rain, although that didn’t deter the local wildlife from making the most of the post-summer holiday human detritus on the cliff slopes. The large oak trees were not, as we normally expect, clothed in galls, perhaps a reflection of the windy conditions overlooking the estuary, although the leaves did show numerous leaf-mines.

Out at the end of the pier, there were spawning groups of Grey Mullet, lots of Herring and Black-headed Gulls, along with more Mediterraneans, and some decent roosting flocks of Turnstones, newly back from the tundra…

But most remarkable was the number of Red Admirals migrating south along the pier, reaching the end and, not able to see the other side, circling round presumably until the migratory urge eventually forced them over. There were hundreds throughout the day, including several way out over the open mouth of the estuary. A similar movement was picked up along the Dutch coast the same day. Remarkable really, especially as these are not the individuals that made the springtime journey here. Not even the parents, but probably the grandparents may have made it here, if indeed they were not ones that survived the winter here as many now do.

So it was off eastwards into the open estuary ,,,

… well, as open an estuary as it can be with all the buoys, beacons and wrecks, and many, many vessels, both trading and (like dredgers and cable-layers) working.

The traffic was heavy and the visibility far from perfect, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that apart from gulls and Cormorants (and Red Admirals – one photobombing the picture above!), there were rather few seabirds an other marine life. Just a few Gannets passed by, together with Common and Little Terns, a flock of Wigeons and passing overhead a couple of migrating Rock Pipits.

Then after more than an hour of steaming eventually the shape of the forts emerged from the mist. So far out, yet they seemed no nearer than when we had seen them previously from the pier. Perhaps that was a bit of a magnified mirage as can happen over water?

Closer and ever closer we headed, and the details be came clearer …

… until we went right through the array, between the slightly offset searchlight tower and the rest. Remarkable structures, formerly joined by aerial walkways, they are probably now beyond repair and being claimed by rust and gulls. If you want to visit them, and we would thoroughly recommend it, don’t leave it too long!

Round and round we went, seeing the array from every angle, through the watery upwellings of sunken forts, past the potentially explosive wreck of the ‘Liberty Ship’, the SS Richard Montgomery, and back to Southend Pier three hours after our departure. A wonderful day out and a fitting centrepiece to the September leg of our year of monthly delights.

Late summer in Cambridge Botanic Garden

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

A summertime trip to Cambridge Botanic Garden is always in order: there are the flowers of course, but also insects using the garden’s resources. Well, at least in most years: the poor insect showing of 2024 has been mentioned time again in these blogs, and sadly the story was the same here last week.

Of course there were insects, but fewer in number and range than we hoped for, although bumblebees at least seemed to be thriving, albeit almost all of just one species (Buff-tailed), around the flowers of Eryngium, Scabiosa, Echinops and Lavandula in particular.

Otherwise the following selection shows quite a good range of insects, although remember that all too many of these were just single individuals.

Several things though we did find noteworthy, from the remarkable camouflage of multi-instar aggregations of Dock Bugs on the seeds of Great Water Dock to foraging Bee-wolves, not particularly special nowadays but always a thrill for those of us with memories back to the 20th century, when they were restricted to far southern heathlands…

… and a new carrion beetle to us, Silpha laevigata, a specialist of the Chilterns and North Downs chalk on account of it favoured prey, snails.

Another, perhaps less unexpected, surprise was on the leaves of one of the Mediterranean evergreen oaks, Quercus trojana, which bore leaf-mines identical to those of the micromoth Phyllonorycter messaniella. This is familiar to us now as a miner of Holm Oak, but not according to our researches this new host species. Then again, who is looking?

Apart from that it was left to the plants to entertain, including species (sometimes rather rare) native to our shores …

… to those that have established themselves in the wild from cultivation in the past few centuries …

… and those that, at least for now, are garden novelties only.

 

Otherwise it was up to certain species, here Cornelian-cherry and Deadly Nightshade, to give us a hint of the impending season.

All that is left to say is a twinge of disappointment that the eco-optimism we felt on previous visits may have been misplaced. Where was the long grass? Maybe (being generous) it had already been harvested as hay, but especially after such a slow start to the summer, an August cut would have decimated insect populations. And on that topic, why celebrate the flowering of Thalia dealbata as a point of garden interest, given its now well documented antisocial behaviour, killing pollinators slowly.

Having said that, it was always a pleasure to be there, and so convenient for our preferred travel by rail!

The Wild Side of Essex: late summer by the Colne Estuary

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

As the full group assembled at Wivenhoe Station, things started too look up. The last vestiges of overnight cloud and rain were clearing away eastwards, although the wind was pretty rough, as indeed it remained all day. As the sun evaporated the moisture, humidity increased, and it turned into a very pleasant, hot day indeed.

Our varied day began well with a couple of ‘hot off the presses’ sightings. In the station community garden, Firebugs were eating the Hollyhock seeds. Until about five years ago only fleetingly resident in the UK, despite their abundance on the continent, they colonized the Harwich area (presumably via the port), and since then have consolidated and spread. They reached (or at least were found in) Wivenhoe only a week ago.

Then in the railway underpass, we found European Cave Spiders. So far as is known, this is the only site in north Essex for the species, and it has been known here for only about three months.

Our morning walk took in all three sections of the Colne Local Nature Reserve. Apart from wandering bands of Blue, Great and Coal Tits, an occasional Great Spotted Woodpecker ‘chicking’ and a young Sparrowhawk mewling, the strong wind kept things rather quiet.

But in more sheltered rides and clearings, Speckled Woods were taking advantage of the sun and Ivy, the plant that prepares our wildlife for winter as pretty much the last nectar and pollen source of the year, was just bursting out.

Leaf miners are always there to find, whatever the weather, and we looked at both Holm Oak (a moth) and Holly (a fly)…

… while galls provided hours of fun, searching the leaves for spangles, smooth spangles, silk buttons and cherries, with knoppers on the acorns.

Out into Lower Lodge, the meadows looking a bit forlorn after the past six weeks of near-total drought and searing temeperatures, the main pollen and nectar sources were Wild Carrot and Common Ragwort along with the last few Field Scabious, although the wind largely kept the insects down …

… except in the scrub-sheltered areas where there was plenty of dragonfly activity, with Common Darters flycatching, Migrant and Southern Hawkers hawking and a female Southern Migrant Hawker (another relatively new arrival in these parts some three years ago) perching.

The third section of the Local Nature Reserve was Ferry Marsh, skirted by the elevated pathway on the seawall. But again, little in the way of bird activity given the wind which rather than creating a gentle psithurism  was more like the roar of the wild as it swept through the stands of Common Reed.

But turning seaward, there were birds: Black-headed Gulls, a few Redshanks and Black-tailed Godwits and single Cormorant and Curlew on the half-exposed mudbanks.

Then it was along the Wivenhoe waterfront, with a sheltered and shady spot for lunch, and chance to see the two botanical specialities of the block-paving, Jersey Cudweed along West Quay and Four-leaved Allseed around the Shipyard.

Our afternoon walk was much more exposed, heading downstream into the open estuary; the full afternoon sun and a reducing wind made for a rather hot time. There were very few waterbirds to be seen, due to a combination of the time of year, a very high spring tide and some noisy aerial activity from the Clacton Airshow. And especially the sometimes illegal and always antisocial presence of the ‘Romford Navy’ playing on their jet-skis…

But when it was quiet it was truly sublime, the gently lapping wavelets and squawking gulls complementing the silence perfectly. Time to take enjoy the saltmarsh in flower, with both Sea Aster and Golden Samphire looking especially good.

The seawall itself had fruiting Strawberry Clover and more ragwort, but this time mostly the lemon-yellow, greyish narrow-leaved grazing marsh specialist Hoary Ragwort.

And lingering in the welcome shade of  Grange Wood, there was plenty of time to examine the Small-leaved Elms, both living suckers and dead trees. King Alfred’s Cakes on the latter were rather unexpected as this fungus normally grows on Ash, while Silver Birches had the much more expected Birch Brackets.

All that was left was to wander back through Wivenhoe, some buzzing Ivy bushes and splendid pargeting on the Garrison House rounding off a full, fun and diverse day.

The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: Summer peaks, Autumn approaches…

Beth Chatto Gardens, Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

My two August Wandering Naturalist events around the Beth Chatto Gardens were at the start and in the middle of the month, and on both we we were blessed with hot, sunny and still weather. In total around 30 customers took the opportunity to be shown the wildlife with which we share the garden.

Of course in practice ‘the wildlife’ means the insects – while birds are always there, apart from Moorhen chicks, those in the garden tend to hide away when the gardens are open. But Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and Robins were singing, with Swallows migrating overhead, and the local Buzzards mewling around.

The two week period covered by this blog saw the summer peak and start to fade: aside from a 12mm downpour the night before the second set of walks there was no rain, and both day and night temperatures were very high. By mid-August, the garden and its wildlife were flagging – Verbena, Buddleja, Origanum and Eryngium were over in a flash…

… while the daisy family was starting to assert its autumnal supremacy, along with the absolute stars of the show, the various Bistorta amplexicaulis forms which were simply humming with Honeybees, social wasps and patrolling Hornets ….

… and Hylotelephium ice-plants just starting to make their presence felt.

Whilst it was possible to record up to ten species of butterfly a day, none were in large numbers, as has been typical of so many places this year.

And indeed very much the same could be said for all bees, hoverflies and other pollinators: more than anywhere else locally, but fewer than there should be.

Plenty of activity round the Water Garden though, with half a dozen species of dragonfly (including Ruddy Darter) and four damselflies, most numerously the relatively newly arrived Willow Emerald, the one that is likely to persist deep into autumn.

All around the garden, away from the flowers, there were insects basking or, when it was too hot, sheltering:

 

 

And a final selection of goodies included White Crab-spider, Bee-wolf and Hornet Hoverfly.

Even the busiest areas added interest to our walks, with the bee hotel by the tea room a focus for activity, and in the nursery one group was lucky enough to be shown a large Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar, probably heading to pupation after munching its fill of evening-primroses!

If anyone wants to join me on a nature walk around the gardens, I will be doing just that (weather permitting!) for a final time this summer on September 20th. Once you have paid to come in, the walk is free! Walks commence at 11AM and 12 noon each day, meeting at the Visitor Information Centre. For garden entrance tickets and more information, visit our website Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens, and do come expecting to want to buy some of the wildlife-attracting plants I will show you, as well as delicious tea and cakes!

Blogs of the previous Meet the Wandering Naturalist event this summer can be found here:

April: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: among the April showers… | Chris Gibson Wildlife

May: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: the height of Spring | Chris Gibson Wildlife

June: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: is summer finally here? | Chris Gibson Wildlife

July:  The Wild Side of Beth Chatto Gardens: focus shifts to the ponds | Chris Gibson Wildlife

Cockaynes Reserve in high summer

Britain's Wildlife, Cockaynes Reserve, WildEssex, WildWivenhoe

At the height of the recent heatwave, an early morning around Cockaynes was very much in order. But even before 7AM it was above 20°C, and the water buffalos were already mudbathing in the shade!

This uncertain summer has turned from soggy to hard-baked almost overnight, and the vegetation is starting to look very droughted, with flowers generally at a premium..

The iconic Heather strip, a symbol of the reserve in the sense that it was the discovery of a relict sprig that helped to persuade the gravel company to adopt a wildlife-focused approach to restoration after gravel extraction, is purpling up irrespective of the weather…

… while Trailing St. John’s-wort and Common Centaury added their splashes of colour to the bleached turf.

Insects and other invertebrates were scarce, by now a familiar situation this summer, but probably more to do with the fact they were already resting in the shade than anything else:

Two were of particular note. First a Buff-tip moth caterpillar: common enough, but just look at that camouflage, pretending to be a fruiting Silver Birch catkin. And second, a picture-winged fly, a Homoneura species, probably the commonest H. notata, although internal examination is probably needed to confirm. But even this commonest species has been recorded in north Essex only once previously, from a site to the west of Colchester.

Out in the open, the only real plants attracting pollinators were Ragwort (Common and Hoary), and Common Fleabane. These were drawing some insects in, especially flies and a few bumblebees.

 

But down in Villa Wood, alongside the Sixpenny Brook, the air was more buzzy, shade from the Alders keeping temperatures down.

Best plant in the valley was Wild Angelica, its domed umbels at times alive with hoverflies, wasps and Yellow-and-Black Longhorn Beetles, and being patrolled by Hornets.

But as always, where there are few insects to actually see, there are often insects to record on the basis of not seeing the animal itself. The open sand had nest holes of digger-wasps; a leaf had a mobile ball of fluff skittering across its surface, the camouflaged larva of a lacewing, clothed in the remains of its aphid victims; and a swelling in a willow stem proved to be the gall of a gall-midge Rabdophaga salicis. seemingly uncommon in England and in fact the Essex Field Club map showing just one previous county record, in the deep south. Indeed, its national distribution as a whole is very sparsely scattered,  away from western Scotland. Always something to find!

Selborne and Thursley Common

Britain's Wildlife

A few days ago, I headed down to Selborne in Hampshire for a meeting of the British Naturalists’ Association. Why Selborne? Well, of course it is the home of the father of British nature writing and phenological studies, Gilbert White, the former curate of the parish, and the BNA membership includes two of the foremost experts on Gilbert White, June Chatfield and Stephanie Holt.

The house now hosts a museum to Gilbert and also the Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates, a descendent of whom funded the creation of the museum. Both parts are full of interest, memorabilia and books, books and more books, including the manuscript of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, one of the most published of books in English, continuously in print since 1789.

We started with the two moth traps, run the previous night, and the diverse contents got the day off to a flying start. Among the many highlights, in addition to perennial favourites such as Poplar Hawk, Rosy Footman and Ruby Tiger, were Peach Blossom, Yellow-barred Brindle, Four-spotted Footman, Black Arches, August Thorn, Straw Underwing, Maiden’s Blush and Spectacle….

… together with several sexton beetles, including this Nicrophorus interruptus, hosting a fine display of travelling mites.

Then it was out to the meadows and hedgerows, overlooked by the famous Selborne Hanger, a beechwood on the scarp slope above.

Hogweed was feeding hoverflies, in turn feeding White Crab Spiders …

… while Hedge Woundwort was past flowering, its seeds like clutches of tiny eggs …

… and  one of the most abundant hedgerow nectar sources was Small Teasel, its flowers very attractive to Honeybees.

 

Into the garden, Globe-thistles were equally attractive to both Honeybees and bumblebees, the latter also visiting the many Hollyhocks.

Other plants included Wild Basil, Caper Spurge (a surprising inclusion in an otherwise largely edible garden) and Motherwort, a dead-nettle relative with improbably furry flowers.

And finally, to the churchyard to pay our respects to Gilbert White’s modest final resting place, beside a dripping downpipe clump of Marchantia polymorpha liverwort. I am sure he would have approved! And then all that was left was to visit the Jubilee Tap to sample some of the beers produced across the road, some to Gilbert’s own recipes.

So far from home, I had decided to stay the night in the area, and that gave me the chance the following day to explore one of England’s finest nature reserves, Thursley Common, a place I haven’t been to for more than 30 years.

Thursley comprises a vast complex of lowland heath, both dry and wet, and merging into peaty boglands. Fortunately it has well-marked routes, including boardwalks, allowing the sensitive habitats to be viewed without damaging them.

 

The wetter bits with Sphagnum mosses also have a range of ‘grassy’ bog plants which are quite special when one comes from bog-less Essex, including White Beak-sedge, Common Cotton-grass, Deergrass and Black Bog-rush.

 

Much more showy, there was Common Sundew, Bog Asphodel, Marsh St. John’s-wort and Bogbean …

 

… with a fringe of Cross-leaved Heath.

Moving towards higher ground, Bell Heather and Dwarf Gorse took over, gradually giving way to Common Heather and Bracken on the highest ground.

Remarkably almost the whole reserve was affected by a severe wildfire only four summers ago, and now one really has to look hard for fire-charred stumps and ground.

But while the plants and communities may be recovering, the special reptiles are lagging behind. Where once it was reasonably easy to see Adders, Smooth Snakes and Sand Lizards, the only reptiles I saw were Common Lizards, mostly basking on the boardwalks.

Those same structures were also the easiest places to see dragonflies, one of the most important groups of insects on the reserve, here with Black-tailed and Keeled Skimmer, Common and Black Darter and Four-spotted Chaser, alongside many other insects including flesh-flies and sand-wasps.

It was a very hot, sunny, windless day and birds were not much in evidence, apart from Stonechat families and a few Tree Pipits and Dartford Warblers…

… and it was left to natural esoterica to provide the final highlights: an ex-Vapourer Moth caterpillar eviscerated by an ichneumon parasite, and a fly-gall Anisostephus betulinus on Birch that, assuming the NBN Atlas is up to date, is not recorded from anywhere closer than mid-Suffolk, Bodmin and Cardiff!

Two days in Norwich

Britain's Wildlife, Travel by Rail

Our August short break was very special, one on which 6 year-old Eleanor was able to come with us. An easy train journey followed by a bus brought us to the University of East Anglia by lunchtime. In the nearly 40 years since I left after my PhD, I have been back only a mere handful of times.

But it never fails to stir me. Memories of hard work, but lots of fun. And it has left me with an enduring love of Brutalist architecture…

Whilst some public sculpture was always there, there is so much more now:

And the campus, in which I honed so many of my identification skills (and probably spent too much time when I should have been in the lab), is still wonderfully wild, at least in front of the famous ziggurats and the teaching wall (behind the wall, things are very different!).

Woolly Mullein, a Norfolk speciality, is still there, and a short walk brought us tinkling parties of Goldfinches, and a selection of insects including the micromoth Agriphila tristella, a red flea-beetle Sphaeroderma and (new to us) a willow-feeding mirid bug Agnocoris reclairei.

Plenty of the mullein also around the city, including on the old flint city walls …

Almost under the shadow of the hulking Catholic Cathedral, the Plantation Garden (essentially a Victorian Gothic folly within an abandoned chalk pit) was as delightful as ever:

You might have to peer hard to see the Large House Spider in the final picture!

And on the other side of town, the magnificently graceful Anglican cathedral provided shade from the heat along with architectural and artistic drama:

Eleanor, not to be outdone, also seemed inspired by the Anglican Cathedral and the Plantation Garden. Here are some of her photographic efforts, given free rein to see the world as only a 6 year-old can!

Two days topped off with a drink and loaded chips outside the lovely Adam & Eve pub, and not even return rail disruption due to a lineside fire could take away the pleasure!

An evening walk on Layer Breton Heath

Britain's Wildlife, WildEssex

I last blogged about Layer Breton Heath three years ago, describing the chequered history of this locally important grass-heath. A few days ago I had the chance to return, to lead an evening walk on a very hot, summery day.

Since my previous visit the site has continued to diversify with good management of the open areas especially.  In several areas now, bare sandy ground created by trampling have been colonized by ground-nesting solitary wasps, including Sand Wasp and (below) the Bee-wolf, a predator of various bee species. we were able to watch the comings and goings of the occupants of the nests.

Insects were generally abundant, a nice surprise given the paucity of insect life in Essex so far this summer. Dragonflies and damselflies were everywhere, despite the absence of water bodies on the heath itself, no doubt feasting smaller fry to build resources before returning to breeding ponds, and three species of grasshopper provided a constant chorus from the grass.

A Yellow-and-black Longhorn beetle flew around clumsily before landing on some Bramble flowers, while Hogweed Bonking-beetles were up to their usual antics, albeit not on Hogweed…

Meadow Browns were in the longer grass and Gatekeepers very numerous along the scrubby edges, often nectaring on Ragwort flowers. Indeed it was Ragwort that was doing the heavy lifting of feeding insects generally; it is so worrying to hear the overblown media outrage at the presence of this inordinately valuable nectar source in our late summer landscape. Among many other visitors were tachinid flies and a very worn White-letter Hairstreak.

And of course, Cinnabar caterpillars, although on only a few plants, which seems to be the pattern this year, presumably reflecting poor weather during the adults’ flight period.

Black Knapweed was also blooming well and attracting a steady stream of visitors, including this Common Leaf-cutter bee, its abdomen typically tilted upwards to show the pollen gathered beneath.

Otherwise, among the butterflies there were Commas, Large and Small Whites, Peacocks and Small Skippers.

One botanical newcomer for me was Bell Heather, which may have arisen through ground disturbance releasing a seed-bank, although perhaps more likely from seed collected at the nearby Tiptree Heath and spread along the route of the new water pipeline.

In some of the bare patches on the open heath, Rosebay Willowherb was blooming well, and along the woodland edges, good stands of Wood Sage, to my eyes one of the most subtly beautiful flowers of our lowland heaths.

All was wrapped up very satisfactorily with a buffet supper at the Hare and Hounds, followed by a spot of batting as it got dark, with both Common and Soprano Pipstrelles and a Daubenton’s Bat picked up with the bat detector.